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Self-Efficacy/Self-Esteem

“I want to do it myself!” “I can do it!” Anyone who has been around young children has heard these two statements. Statements such as these reflect children asserting their independence and reflect children's sense of self. Children believe in themselves. Only as they grow older and interact more with their environment and with others do children start to have self-doubts that challenge their self-esteem and self-efficacy. Self-esteem is a global concept that has been defined as one's general feelings of self-worth, and Albert Bandura coined the term self-efficacy to describe one's belief in his or her ability to do a specific task. This entry describes self-efficacy in relation to gender and race/ethnicity, positive self-esteem, talented and gifted students, and fostering positive self-beliefs.

Gender and Race/Ethnicity

A landmark study by the American Association of University Women examined the self-esteem of a large, national sample of boys and girls from childhood through adolescence. As young children, both boys and girls were positive about themselves; however, as they matriculated from 4th grade to 12th grade, girls experienced a dramatic decline in their self-esteem, whereas the self-esteem of boys seemed to get stronger. Carol Gilligan suggested that girls enter adolescence feeling strong, wise, and capable, yet during adolescence they start to hide their “true self,” which leaves them feeling less confident and having more negative views of themselves. Indeed, this negative view of self is also reflected in girls, regardless of giftedness, starting to develop negative self-perceptions with respect to their body images, another aspect of self-esteem. Another possible explanation for the negative shift in girls' self-esteem is that girls experience an increase in depressive affect during adolescence. By late adolescence, girls experience more depression than do boys their age. Sex-role development and the socialization for females to be communal and for males to be competitive also affects self-esteem. As noted in the National Council for Research on Women report, The Girls Report & What We Need to Know About Growing Up Female, twice as many girls as boys are depressed, and self-esteem is a strong correlate of depression.

In a longitudinal study, researchers found that change in self-esteem among women was related to interpersonal characteristics that included nurturance and warmth, whereas changes in self-esteem among men was strongly linked to self-focused qualities such as managing social anxiety. Self-esteem is important in that it is positively related to an individual's ability to cope with stress and is negatively associated with depression, stress, and suicidal ideation. Furthermore, race/ethnicity interacts with self-esteem with Hispanic, Asian American, and Native American adolescents, particularly girls, having lower self-esteem than do Euro-American adolescents.

Positive Self-Esteem

Positive self-esteem has been consistently linked with creativity, talent, and giftedness. An important aspect of creativity is motivation. Intrinsic motivation (being driven by personal interest, gratification, challenge, or fulfillment) is associated with increases in self-esteem and creativity; however, extrinsic motivation (being driven by external rewards, evaluation, and competition) negatively affects creativity and self-esteem. Creative students who did not receive rewards or evaluation during or after completing a task have been found to be more creative than are the students who received rewards or evaluations. Also, persons with high self-esteem are not as vulnerable to environmental factors as those with low self-esteem. Thus, self-esteem is a protective factor against the negative external influences that constrain creativity.

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